Does anyone know of an effective way to catch a stray kitten? My mom has one outside of the house she is moving from, and he is a tiny thing (and she wants to keep him), but she only has 5 more days till she is gone from there. If the landlords of this place see him, they will call the pound (or worse) because they hate cats (and are horrible people). We have been luring him towards the house with milk and cat food, which works, but then he runs away if you get near him. Just looking for some ideas (nice one obviously).

That is looking like the best option... Hopefully I can talk my mom into it, which will be easy as she was rubbing her head and face on the brickwork on the porch he keeps going on to make him feel "confortable". Gotta give her credit though, he saw he doing it, and came closer to see what was going on.

Another trick. of you can handle it... rest. If the kitten is a stray and not "completely feral" (as in a born in the "wild" and unused to any company) put some food down near you, grab a blanket or such, and just rest there. Cats are normally a wee bit social. if you can sleep, or pretend to, near food and drink the cat may feel relaxed enough to nap, either on the blanket with you, curled up with you, or on the warm spot you leave behind when you get up.

It gets the cat used to you, food, and comfort. Your scent on the blanket/food will make you a good association for the cat. (of course you may want it to be her inseady of you.)

Edit: that can also work with later (I know not long) with putting the blanket/scent/food in a carrier. It is already coming by for food and cats will recognise the human scent on the food dish, so be a little bit trusting already.

My ex girlfriend and I did this for 2 stray cats that were one of her neighbours. It will take a while for the cat to trust you and for the cat to feel comfortable around with you. If you trap the cat, or grab it to throw it inside so it can't escape you may have some trouble on your hands.

In the end they did give in and they were very affectionate cats and we did find a good home for them before the winter months came.

Yeah, the have-a-heart trap is the best bet. My only suggestion, wear gloves when you go to take it out because if it is feral, it will scratch the living hell out of your hands/arms when you go to pick it up out of the cage.

Tuna. Dolphin safe in oil. Our cats will ignore everything to get to it. And have a carrier to put it in. You don't want to move an even slightly feral cat in a car without one. I can barely drive with our two tame cats in the car. Not that I do it much.

The picture up above of the TNR crate would be your best bet if time is an issue. Put the food in there. Use a very smelly fish catfood, or mackerel if you can find it. Put it in the trap, far back and just hide and watch. Don't feed him any other food during this time. Once he is trapped you will be able to see how social he is. But even if he seems to be sweet, be careful he doesn't shred you.

This advice comes from someone who has a feral cat that was tnr'd and now lives in my house in the cat's room. She is gorgeous, but you just don't want to touch her....ever. She is very happy to be indoors and get her 2 squares a day plus the occasional catnip. I have 3 other cats and I get enough love and affection from them, so that I don't need it from Greta Garbo. Please let me know how this works out.

I once went to move house and I thought I would place my docile loving cat in the car boot (trunk) - the cat upon seeing the open boot of the car decided "No you bloody won't!" and turned into Taz from the cartoons. I tell you, if ever I could have an animals abilty, then a cat's self-preservation is the one I would choose.

The basket with the lid propped open with a stick (with string attached to the stick), with some really nice food (as mentioned, tunu is excellent) and a little patience should do it.

Use tuna fish juice as a lure. With only a few days this may not work. You got to earn the kitties trust. I would put out a dish of tuna fish juice but no food. Or at least not much at all. You want to keep the kitty a little hungry for this to work.

Put the juice out there in a safe place and leave. Watch the area if you can. Once the kitty drinks the juice go out there and be totally cool, put a little more juice in the dish. The goal is to make the kitty feel comfortable with your presence by ignoring the kitty. :) Just put down a little juice at a time and leave. Dont say anything to the kitty if they are near. Cats hate it when you ignore them. They will do anything to get your attention.

After a day or so of this behavior, put the juice out and stay in the area but somewhere a little distant, say 10-20 feet away. Place the juice in a spot where the kitty has easy access but can scoot away to a hidey spot quickly. Sit down and take a bit of string and start enticing the kitty to play. They simply can not ignore string. Just be cool and like I am just playing with this string, no big deal. I think you will quickly get the kitties attention. Play with them a bit but leave without exhausting the game. Again, toy with them but leave the kitty wanting more juice and play time.

If the cat is feral you risk scratches and possible infections but have the hydrogen peroxide and bandages handy.

At some point you will have to trap the kitty in a blanket or just grab the cat. If you can entice them to sit in your lap or let you pet them you will have a much better chance. Absolute best way is to entice them into a garage with the door mostly shut. Them trap them by closing the door. The scruff of the neck is a suitable place for kitties, not full grown cats. Just be mentally prepared to hold on tight and maybe get a little bloody.

Good Luck and I wish you the best. If all else fails, go to a vet and get some sleepy drugs. Put drugs in the juice and hope they pass out somewhere you can find them.

I always suggest a blowgun and sleeping darts for people with hyper kids. It might take some practice to hit a small target such as a cat, and you would want to lessen the dosage, but it's pretty effective when you hit them.

Keep moving the food up into the open door of the house, or a kennel outside. Eventually pets get used to being in new closed spaces and prefer it.

If your mom has already feed the cat is a simple matter of put some food and stay near. Most cats are really sweet and if you so much scrach their heads soon the will be leaning in your legs begging for more petting. After a while of this try to carry him to a box or something, do not cage it by force or he'll ran as soon he's free again.

A few months ago Ruth captured a stray kitten and took him to her parent's house. The kitten ran away at first chance. The good thing is that he simply stay in the house across the street and was welcomed there. Now he's a big fat happy cat.